With Leigh Swint scoring 21 points on back-to-back nights, the Booneville Lady Bearcats stayed unbeaten in Conference 3A-4 play beating Charleston and Cedarville on the road.
In the 54-23 win at Charleston Swint added five rebounds and five steals and in the 56-41 win in Cedarville she added six rebounds and four steals.
The Lady Bearcats (13-4, 9-0) have won nine straight and continue to lead Conference 3A-4 by a game over Cossatot River. The two will meet at Cossatot on February 10 to close the regular season.
Lady Bearcats 54 Charleston 23
Before the game was a minute old it was 4-0 and the Lady Bearcats would open an 11-0 lead by the 4:54 mark of the first quarter.
Charleston actually had a possession down 12-3 but could not cut the lead to a single digit.
Leigh Swint had not scored to that point, but she had six points before the quarter ended and it was 18-3.
Swint scored seven second quarter points and the lead grew to 30-8. After scoring eight points in less than four third quarter minutes, Swint’s night was over and the Lady Bearcats were up 40-10.
Lexi Franklin, who had seven rebounds, five assists, and five steals, completed her 10 point night with a basket at the 3:34 mark of the third quarter.
J.J. Keatts banked home a three on an assist from Linley Garrett and the lead was the sportsmanship threshold through three quarters, 46-16.
Garrett hit a pair of fourth quarter 3s and finished with nine points. Garrett also had six rebounds as did Karmen Kent, giving the Lady Bearcats four players with at least five.
Lady Bearcats 56 Cedarville 41
With 1:47 to go in the opening quarter the Lady Bearcats were down 15-5 to the same team they held to 13 total points when they met on just eight days earlier.
The 3 that gave Cedarville a double-digit lead was followed by a technical foul call for an extended shooter pose.
Leigh Swint hit both technical free throws and 10 seconds later Karmen Kent dropped the ball inside to Carah Miller for a basket and it was 15-9.
Cedarville regrouped and scored the final points of the first quarter and started the second quarter scoring with a basket to go up by eight at 19-11.
Then Swint completely took the game over. She scored the next 14 points, doing so from the free throw line, from inside, and from outside the arc.
The run would eventually be one of 19-0 – there were two 18-0 runs in the first meeting – with Linley Garrett and Miller contributing free throws as well, before a Lady Pirate free throw finally ended a draught but the Lady Bearcats led 30-20 at the half.
The single point before the break would start a run of 7-0 for Cedarville and the Lady Bearcat lead was just 30-26 with 4:25 to go in the third quarter.
The Lady Bearcats answered that with an 8-0 run of their own in less than two minutes and it was 38-26 after Miller’s third basket of the third quarter.
Miller would finish with 14 points
With 6:24 to go the Lady Bearcats would push the lead to 13 at 43-30 on a conventional three-point play by Lexi Franklin.
Cedarville pared the deficit to a single digit but a couple of free throws by Swint and a basket by Layla Byrum had it back to 13 with 4:06 left.
It was again nine at the 2:06 mark but the Lady bearcats scored nine points in a span of 1:17 to put the game well out of reach.
Kent, Franklin, and Swint all totaled six rebounds and Byrum, Franklin, and Swint all had four steals.
The Lady Bearcats are on the road at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Paris and are scheduled to meet Hackett at home on Tuesday in a 4 p.m. tip.
SWINT SCORES 21, TWICE; LADY BEARCATS WIN, TWICE
